They’re any number of ways to make a fresh cup of coffee these days. If you’re like me, an old-fashioned drip coffee maker does the trick. But I’ve often heard that the best way to make a cup of coffee is to use a press. The Palmpress single-serve coffee press is a portable take on the traditional coffee press.
Palmpress is a reusable, easy-to-use personal coffee press that lets you make hand brewed craft coffee at home or anywhere you want. And it does it one cup at a time.
Just fill the Palmpress with medium grind coffee and hot water. Wait 3-minutes, set on your favorite coffee mug filter-side down and gently press to extract coffee. Voila, fresh hand-poured coffee that would make a barista proud.
The reusable eco-friendly design means no more messy filters or disposable pods.
And Palmpress is easy to clean. It completely disassembles for a thorough cleaning and is even dishwasher safe.
The Palmpress single-serve coffee press is available on The Grommet for $39.
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REVIEW – Each day, my life always seems to be very hectic, and I have to be very proactive and create a moment to rest and relax and to unwind. Music is “the medicine for my soul” and if I cannot use earbuds, a Bluetooth speaker is often the perfect alternative. Each night, I like to fall asleep to my favorite music on Pandora, but I find it very uncomfortable to sleep with headphones or earbuds. A Bluetooth speaker on the nightstand is my solution.
What is it?
The Douni A5 Bluetooth speaker is a 25-watt Bluetooth speaker that also supports hands-free 2-way phone conversations including the ability to answer and hang up. It also supports its use as a wired speaker via its auxiliary port.
What’s in the box?
1 x Douni A5 Bluetooth Speaker
1 x AC Power Adapter
1 x Audio cable
1 x User Manual
Design and features
This Douni A5 speaker has a nice rich and clear sound with nice rounded bass. The well-rounded sound is produced via two 12.5 Watt speakers and sounds much like surround sound style speakers and without any distortion. The built-in 6600mAh battery not only makes it portable but allows it to play music for up to 12 hours depending on the level of the volume. It has a good wireless range of up to 66 feet and pairing is simple and automatic, including the initial pairing process. If you have a NFC compatible device, you can tap the check-in area at the top right of the controls to connect your phone, after you have performed the initial pairing function. The built-in microphone produces clear calls for both parties on the phone, and as a bonus, Siri is supported for iPhone users. If you are using the speaker at night and in the dark like I do, there is a thermal sensor across the top of the speaker that activates the buttons backlights when it detects the heat from your hands. Douni stands behind this product by including a one year warranty.
Layout
On the side of the speaker where the ports are located, from left to right there is an Aux-in port, and Aux out port, the DC in port, the USB jack for charging from the power bank, and the reset button.
On the top of the speaker from left to right are the following buttons: power, Bluetooth, call answer/hangup, track backward, play and pause, track forward, volume decrease, volume increase.
When the speaker is powered on there are indicator lights on the top left that show power, charge level, and Bluetooth on/off. The Aux LED only lights when a device is plugged into the auxiliary port. In the top right corner, there is the NFC icon that indicates the NFC area to tap for connecting NFC enables phones/devices.
At the bottom of the speaker, there are 2 holes and 2 contacts that are used for mounting to the optional wireless charging base and connecting to it.
Performance
As soon as I took this Bluetooth speaker out of the box, I had a good feeling about it. It has a hefty and sturdy feel to it and overall it just feels like quality. I plugged it in to charge with the AC adapter, and when I returned in a couple of hours I pressed the power button and it turned on and all of the buttons lit up. The green power LED, and the 3 orange charge level indicated that it ready to go. I pressed the Bluetooth button and it lit up blue and when I checked my Bluetooth settings on my phone, the A5 was available and ready for pairing. It connected with ease, and the speaker confirmed the connection status with a voice command. I then navigated on my phone to the Pandora app and hit play. I am truly impressed with the sound of this speaker, and even more so at night when there is little or no ambient sound and I get to really appreciate the quality of the sound that this speaker provides. I also tested the phone function for answering, hanging up and conversing, and all worked well. I use the Douni A5 every night when I go to bed, and I just simply plug my iPhone USB charging cable into the USB jack on the speaker and when I get up in the morning, I have a fully charged phone. The Aux in feature works well for non-Bluetooth audio devices. I have not yet found any use for the Aux out feature.
What I like
The build quality
The auxiliary jack option
The USB charging option
The really nice sound
The built-in long-lasting battery
What can be improved
The wireless charging dock should be included
Built-in QI wireless charging would make this speaker perfect
Final thoughts
The Douni A5 Bluetooth speaker is one of the best of its kind that I have tested. It is really well built and has a feel of quality. The sound quality is great and it is loud enough for use indoors in any room. Being able to move around the room and have a clear phone conversation is a plus and the ability to have your phone being charged via the speaker while doing so, is very convenient. While I continue to stress that sound and convenience are all individually subjective dynamics, I do believe that most will like this speaker. I give it a big thumbs up!!
Price: $64.99 Where to buy: Amazon Source: The sample for this review was supplied by Douni.
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DEAL – We post about a lot of products from The Grommet because they offer a wide variety of unique gadgets and interesting products from local makers and small businesses that we think you’ll want to know about. But this news post isn’t about a cool new product that they are selling. It’s about a sale for today only for 20% off of everything as a way to celebrate National Thank You day just a bit early. Why is that newsworthy? Because The Grommet almost never has sales, that’s why! So here are the details that you need to know:
-20% off sitewide for Grommet subscribers (free and easy to subscribe)
-No product exclusions
-Free shipping on orders over $50
-Grommet Perk members can stack their 10% discount on top of today’s %20 discount
-One day only (9/12/18)
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NEWS – Living in a house built in the 1960s, you realize how much less people seemed to use in their daily lives than we use now. For example, both our walk-in shower and our bathtub/shower have only a single soap dish each. Other than the rim of the bathtub itself, there’s no place to store all the body wash, soap, shampoo, and conditioner that each member of my family uses. Since our previous house had been built in the 1950s, we were already aware of the lack of shower storage space, and we already knew how to fix it. We simply bought a new simplehuman Tension Shower Caddy for each bathroom – and left behind the one we had been using at our old house for the next people to use.
The simplehuman Tension Shower Caddy is made of stainless steel and anodized aluminum for rust-proofing. The reinforced aluminum pole has a high-compression spring that adjusts to securely fit spaces 6 feet to 9 feet tall. There are three stainless shelves and a towel or washcloth hanger that can be spaced on the pole as you like. In addition to plenty of room for shampoo or body wash, the shelves also have a soap dish, a razor hanger, toothbrush hanger, and cutouts so you can store bottles upside down for easy dispensing.
We’ve had the two simplehuman shower caddies in our condo for the five years we’ve lived here. There’s not a speck of rust on them, and they look as good and work as well as they did when we took them out of the box. If you are in need of some organization and extra storage in your shower, check them out for yourself.
The simplehuman Tension Shower Caddy was available at our local Bed, Bath, and Beyond when we got ours. You can also purchase them at Amazon for $129.99 or at the simplehuman website for $130.00.
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REVIEW – Being the technology geek that I am, I’ve been wanting to upgrade to one of these smart locks for quite a while. When the chance to review the Gate Camera Smart Lock came along I was more than willing to give it a try.
What is it?
The Gate Camera Smart Lock is a deadbolt lock replacement that features a keypad, camera, and two-way audio capability combined with a smart phone app (via WiFi) to deliver features that a normal keypad lock cannot.
What’s in the box?
Gate Camera Smart Lock
USB charging cable
3 keys
Screwdriver
Spacers for thinner doors
Design and features
The Gate Smart Lock features a 720p 150 degree field-of-view motion activated camera with real-time video and audio, WiFi connectivity, LED lit keypad lock, physical key cylinder (standard key backup), 2-way audio communication, and connected features via a smartphone app.
The lock itself is really nice and seems to be well built. It’s simple in design, yet has everything you need. The lock operates on a rechargeable battery that is in the locking knob on the interior side of the lock. The battery is supposed to last 30 to 60 days, but that will vary depending on your wi-fi connection. The knob is held in place with very strong magnets, so you simply pull it off to recharge it with a standard micro-USB cable. The lock can still be operated manually when the battery is off/recharging.
The lock isn’t always accessible via WiFi when motion is detected the lock “wakes up” and connects to your WiFi. This is understandable because to be on all the time would require a very large battery. This means that you can’t just pull up the video feed in the app any time you want, only when motion is detected.
There’s a doorbell feature that will send a notification to the app, as well as an intercom feature for speaking to your guest from the app.
Installation
The Gate Camera Smart Lock replaces the deadbolt on your door, and as such requires installation. If you’ve ever replaced or installed a deadbolt lock, you’ll find the process very familiar. If you’ve never installed a lock like that, you might find the process varies from easy to frustrating depending on the door and your experience level.
The tricky part of the installation process is that doors can vary in thickness and design. There’s plenty of information about this on the Gate website. I had initially planned to install it at my residence but the pre-1900 doors were just not quite compatible, so I took it over to my brother-in-law’s house. That turned out to be a bit of a chore as the deadbolt hole in his door was a little small for the Gate lock. That was probably a non-standard hole, but it was still large enough for a standard deadbolt, but not large enough for the Gate lock. No problem, I have a tool for that. A few minutes later and I had a larger hole and everything installed without a problem.
Part way through the review process I was able to finally locate a new house so I moved across town and swiped back the lock. I had intended to put it on my back door for easy access for myself and family, however, that door has a window in it and the deadbolt was too close to the deadbolt for the Gate lock to fit.
Could not install on this door
So on to the front door. This is where I had issues. The door was the proper thickness and everything, I just did something wrong along the way and before the installation was complete I turned the knob on the back and jammed the lock. The screws weren’t all the way in and the lock was covering the screws making further installation or removal impossible. After a bit of messing with it, I finally got it unjammed and installed properly but this is something that Gate should address as the deadbolt was out which meant that I would not have been able to close the door and just fix it later.
Operation
Initially, I stood next to the door and verified that the lock had access to the wi-fi. I installed the lock and then found the wi-fi connection to be spotty. My router was in the basement about 30 ft away, with only the floor between it and the lock. I then moved my router closer to the door (about 12 ft away), but still had issues. Next, I raised the router up to about head height and that seemed to work fine. It seems as though the Gate Smart Lock has a very week wi-fi signal, so you’ll want to make sure you have a pretty straight shot from your router to the lock. I found the same issue at my brother-in-law’s house, where he only had two walls between the lock and his router and the lock had issues connecting. The lock will unlock using your code when there is no WiFi signal, so even when the power is out the lock will work.
The Gate Smart Lock smartphone app is pretty decent. It features built-in videos that walk you through the process of installation and connection. Setup and configuration was easy, it’s a well-designed app. Notification events are displayed with an animated icon and a summary like “Video while locked” and “Gate entering now”. When you tap the event you can play the video.
With the app, you can create users and assign access schedules. You can create one-time use codes or multiple use codes. If the user has a phone it will text them the access code. When that user uses their code to enter it will send you a notification like “Bob entered the front door”. You can also unlock the door using the app when there is motion at the door, an obvious but useful feature.
You can configure the motion sensitivity (Off/Low/Medium/High) as well as set a time period to auto-lock the door after 10, 20, or 30 minutes. This is a key feature since you can’t lock the door if there’s no motion at the door. This is due to the wi-fi connectivity “sleeping” when there’s no motion.
There’s no battery level indicator in the app or device, it will simply send you a notification when it gets low.
The video that the device delivers isn’t the best when compared to 1080p security cameras, however, you’re not going to be recording a movie with this device. It’s adequate for what it’s intended for which is to see who’s at the door. There were instances where the video showed compression quality issues, but that could be because of the weak WiFi connection I had.
The doorbell feature is nice, especially since my office is in the basement. If someone presses the doorbell button, I’ll get a notification and I can verbally announce through the app that I’ll be there in a minute. I do wish though that the doorbell button actually said “doorbell”, as the phone icon on it may not be obvious to some people.
Even though the lock works properly now, it still has a “WiFi connectivity is weak. You may not be receiving updates from Gate.” message on the main app screen, and there isn’t any way to make that go away.
One thing I really like is that when the lock detects motion, it lights up the keypad. This not only makes it easy to see the numbers but also lets people know that something is watching them, so it might act as a deterrent to would-be thieves.
UPS and FedEx don’t really knock on the door when delivering packages, so the notifications are really handy. Also, one added benefit for me is that my mailbox is next to the front door, so I get motion notifications when the mailman comes, I really like that!
Here are a few screenshots from the app:
What I like
Simple to use
Guest access codes and remote unlock
Notifications tell you who/which code was used to open the door
Physical key backup, you can always use your key to unlock the door
LED lit keypad
What needs to be improved
WiFi signal strength
Improved video recording quality
Notification sound customization, the default sounds are not loud enough and can’t be customized
Final thoughts
I think if you have this lock installed close enough to your router I think you’ll find it to be a great lock. All of the features worked properly, and the few things that I would like to see improved probably could be addressed with an app or firmware update, but they aren’t really deal breakers.
Price: $349.00 Where to buy: Gate and Amazon Source: The sample of this product was provided by Gate.
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